Almost two weeks ago, when contacted by WSB to ask about reports the restaurant had been sold, Mashiko founder Hajime Satoconfirmed it. The restaurant subsequently was closed for several days; we never heard from the new owners, but a longtime employee said in a comment that they expected to reopen last week, and that appeared to have happened, at least when we passed by one night to look. Then tonight, via the same messaging channel we used to contact Sato, we received this message:

Due to issues beyond my control, the sale of Mashiko that I announced last week did not occur. I am still the owner of Mashiko. The restaurant is still for sale, and I hope to have happier news to share about that soon. In the meantime, I am back to working most nights. Mariah and Brandon are still here too, so be sure to stop in for the same amazing sustainable sushi you have come to expect from us!

My family is still planning to move as soon as possible, although things have now been very delayed by these circumstances.

Please accept my thanks to the community for the kind words and support during this extremely difficult time.

Friends of Lincoln Park (FliP) are asking that our community participate in a short survey on the use and existence of social trails in public, forested areas. Social trails are pathways of erosion caused by people and cyclists going ‘off-trail,’ typically serving as a shortcut through parks or forests.

The survey was created by FLiP’s intern Liz Watt (UW Capstone student) and she will be conducting helpful research that includes an assessment of social trails throughout our urban forest landscape and the development of methods to mitigate the effects of this common issue. In addition to the survey, Liz is bringing over 1,000 square feet of Lincoln Park’s forest into restoration (removing invasive plant and tree species and replacing with natives). FLiP is extremely lucky to have Liz on our team!

The survey should take 5 minutes or less to complete – thanks for participating!

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Comments Off on Celebration of Life planned March 30th for Eleanor Lawry, 1925-2019

Family and friends will gather March 30th to remember Eleanor Lawry. This is the remembrance they’re sharing with the community now:

Eleanor Loraine Johnson Justice Lawry was born February 28, 1925, died March 5, 2019.

She celebrated her 94th birthday at The Kenney in West Seattle, where she had lived since 2012. She was born to Arthur Johnson & LaRue (Mowre) Johnson and lived most of her life in West Seattle, and graduated from West Seattle High School in 1942. Eleanor married Keith Justice in Seattle on August 1943. After 26 years of marriage, he died in 1969. On June 1971, she married William F Lawry, Jr. They celebrated their 28th anniversary before he died in 1999.

Eleanor worked at the N&N Variety store in the Admiral Junction for several years before moving to JC Penney, where she worked for 23 years. She would probably still be working at Penney’s into her nineties if the store was still in the Junction. She was an avid bowler, square dancer, Pinochle player, Girl Scout leader and youth group leader at Tibbetts Methodist. Eleanor loved the outdoors and her garden.

She is survived by her three children: LaVonne (Justice) Gould, (Phil); Virginia Justice, AKA jim justice, (Dave McConnell); Verne Justice, (CeCe Kelly), and five grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. She is also survived by her stepchildren Anne (Lawry) Sheets, Joan Lawry, Barb Lawry, Mary (Lawry) Schultz, Bill Lawry and their families.

She is also survived by the Kolbe family and friends in Iowa, where Keith and Eleanor lived after he returned from serving in the Philippines in WWII to work his uncle’s farm. They returned to Seattle in 1952.

She was preceded in death by her brother Charles.

Special thanks to the caring staff at The Kenney. Celebration of her life at The Kenney on Sat., March 30th, from 1-3 PM.

When West Seattle light-rail construction begins, “we’re going to be the first area in West Seattle impacted,” explained Pete Spalding as he opened last night’s Pigeon Point Neighborhood Council meeting, with Sound Transit guests in the spotlight, nine months after ST’s last PPNC appearance.

The Q&A that followed shone some light on topics of major interest, including cost, and why a much-cited number is nonetheless “not a number to get stuck on.” But first:

BURGLARY INVESTIGATION: Police were out in the 9200 block of 12th SW this morning, looking for a burglar whose loot included a handgun. SPD tells us the burglary was detected by an alarm trip; the resident showed up just as the burglar was running out the door.

MAILBOXES BROKEN INTO: Reader report, received today from Carolyn:

Last night or early this morning, several if not all mailboxes were broke into on 8th Ave SW, between Elmgrove and Thistle. Probably a lot more than just that, but that is all I could confirm on my way out this morning. Also a neighbor in the same vicinity had their car window smashed in. Since 2009, this is the hardest-hit this street has been. I have cameras I will be checking this evening. I want to do my part to get the word out to neighbors, as we have to look out for ourselves.

Carolyn says at least one neighbor has filed a police report; we’ll add the number if/when we get it.

We get – and appreciate! – reader tips about new businesses now and then.

Seldom, however, do they include as much excitement and enthusiasm as the tips we received about Ridwell expanding into West Seattle.

One person who identified herself as a happy customer in another neighborhood wrote, “This awesome new local company has a great story and an even better mission and they are coming to West Seattle next!”

Indeed they are – officially starting next Monday. If you haven’t heard of Ridwell, maybe you heard of its previous incarnation as Owen’s List, which began as a father-and-son adventure in recycling reusables, making a match between items no longer needed by some but much-needed by others.

Since then, Owen’s dad Ryan Metzger joined with business partners to morph it into Ridwell: “Because Owen’s List was so popular, people would say, ‘can I pay you for what you’re doing?’.” Ridwell is based on Queen Anne, with some storage facilities in Ballard, and now, with the addition of West Seattle, serving pretty much the entire city. ”

Ryan was in West Seattle the other day as part of the expansion, so we sat down for a chat over coffee. He explained how Ridwell works: Subscribers get a porch bin and cloth bags for the types of material they currently collect – plastic film, styrofoam, “threads” (clothing etc.), light bulbs, batteries. They have a fifth “rotating” category that is generally the type of pickup that Owen’s List inaugurated – something to donate to an organization that needs it. (One collection that’s coming up will be kitchenware for refugee families.)

Ridwell finds the market for the material – plastic film and styrofoam, for example, are taken to Kent; the film eventually becomes the decking material Trex; the foam is compressed into a material that, Ryan says, is used in products such as picture frames.

You pay a monthly subscription fee – lower if you commit to a longer period (starting at $10/month currently) – for a pickup every two weeks. West Seattle will be Mondays, for starters. And while the accessibility issue means they are starting as a service mostly for single-family homes, Ryan says they want to serve more multi-family buildings and are interested in hearing from anyone who wants to be part of a pilot project.

The company is small now, still using cars rather than trucks to make most pickups – “we can fit 30, 40, 50 people’s (recycling) in a car!” – but expecting to grow beyond the Seattle city limits: “The response has been great!” enthuses Ryan.

And toward the goal of efficiency/sustainability – subscribers opt in for pickups via email or website – so if you don’t need one, they won’t stop by. You can find out more at getridwell.com.

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Comments Off on FERRY ALERT UPDATE: Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth down a boat, again, briefly

The M/V Sealth is out of service due to unscheduled maintenance until further notice. The Fauntleroy/Vashon/Southworth route will operate under the normal 3-boat schedule without the #2 vessel departures and arrivals. Real-time departures and arrivals of the M/V Cathlamet and M/V Chelan can be viewed on www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/vesselwatch.

It was just yesterday that the route returned to 3-boat service after a week with two.

1:30 PM: The problem was brief and the run’s back to three-boat service.

Two and a half years after fire destroyed a building at the Seattle Housing Authority‘s Lam Bow Apartments (6935 Delridge Way SW), the process of replacing it has taken a turn. SHA has a new design for the replacement building – which will also replace the building that wasn’t involved in the fire. This is a big change from the plan that went before the Southwest Design Review Board in May of last yar. The changes are in part enabled by expected HALA Mandatory Housing Affordability upzoning, which will allow this to go up to four floors, with 80 units in the new building (up from the 51 total in the original complex – 21 in the fire-gutted building, 30 in the remaining building). SHA’s Ryan Moore tells WSB that they expect this process to go faster because the project is “using the administrative design review process this time, since the rules for design review changed last year and now allow this option for affordable housing. Our hope is that this translates into a faster approval, allowing us to get started with construction sooner.”

Cost of the project is estimated at around $35 million; Moore explains, “The existing building will cost at least as much to rehabilitate as a new building and likely more. We were planning on saving it until we conducted all the necessary analysis to determine how much rehab was needed.” Another change along with the increased number of apartments: “Due to costs, we won’t be building the underground parking as we had originally planned, but we will be providing one parking space for each unit on a surface parking lot” – 80 spaces for 80 apartments. Most of the new units, Moore says, will be 2- and 3-bedroom apartments, and they’re already working with current tenants regarding pre-demolition relocation. The full early-design proposal should be on the city website soon (here’s a flyer in the meantime); the change in process means no Design Review Board meeting, but public comments will be sought and accepted.

DELRIDGE STATION COMMUNITY WORKSHOP: Second of this week’s two meetings involving planning for West Seattle light rail – 6:30 pm at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, a workshop specifically focused on community input regarding the Delridge station, easternmost of the three stations proposed for the West Seattle line. Here’s the official flyer from Sound Transit. (4408 Delridge Way SW)

FAUNTLEROY COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION: Final plans for the March 19th general membership meeting and Food Fest are on the agenda for tonight’s Fauntleroy Community Association business meeting, as is a briefing on the Fauntleroy Creek culverts replacement plan, as previewed here. 7 pm at the Fauntleroy Schoolhouse conference room – community members always welcome. (9131 California SW)

Story by Tracy Record Photos/video by Patrick Sand West Seattle Blog co-publishers One of the students who organized this afternoon's massive protest in the West Seattle Junction told the crowd they weren't sure anyone would show up. Someone did. Four digits worth of someones. (Aerial photo courtesy...